The 2025 World Series: The Best Team Won
by Andre Manzo
The 2025 World Series was a Fall Classic for the ages — with multiple extra-inning games (making it the longest in history), a game seven comeback, and a repeat champion for the first time since the turn of the century.
Despite this, a bugging narrative that the better team lost has taken over to frame the Los Angeles Dodgers’ victory as pure luck. The narrative is a byproduct of box score watching, which indisputably favors the Toronto Blue Jays as the moral winners of the series.
The Blue Jays slashed a team .269 batting average with .398 slugging and a .745 on-base plus slugging. These stats blow the Dodgers out of the water, who only slashed .203, .364 and .658 respectively.
Toronto totaled 34 runs compared to Los Angeles' 26 across the seven games. In this case, it is easy to piggyback the argument, especially considering the historical greatness of the Toronto Blue Jays’ postseason run.
Unfortunately, the World Series is not a rotisserie fantasy league format. Winning by 20 runs in one game does not mean any more than winning by a walk-off home run. Considering this, the evaluation of which critics operate should change.
Instead, it should be clarified that October baseball is, and continues to be, the greatest representation of parity in American sports. From the wild card World Series Champions to the small and large market dominance — it is the winning moments that shape winning teams. It simply overcomes statistics.
So, when the moments are considered, the Los Angeles Dodgers won in that category.
A complete game from Yoshinobu Yamamoto in game two. A walk-off home run to win after 18 innings in game three. A game ending double play to force game seven. Then, three solo home runs in game seven to scrape together a one run win.
Mix that with arguably the greatest World Series pitching performance of all time from Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and the Dodgers are the first repeat champions since the three peat Yankees from ’98-’00.
The Dodgers were the better team in this series, because when the moments called in the games of the smallest margins, they showed up.
Manager Dave Roberts, who has been consistently scrutinized in years past for his obsession with analytics and match-ups, put together two managing gems when facing elimination. He stepped back from the box score — and fans should too.
Miguel Rojas was the change made after two disheartening home losses. A veteran who sparsely saw the field, he led game six and seven with defensive heroics and a game-tying bottom of the ninth solo shot. It was his first hit in a month.
Blue Jays manager John Schneider took a different approach. In multiple losses, he switched great hitting in Bo Bichette for decent running in Isiah Kiner-Falefa. Despite Bichette’s knee injury, the positive of his hitting severely outweighed the pinch running changes.
The substitution never worked in Schneider’s favor. In retrospect, it was repetitive and hindered the dangerous hitting in crucial moments.
When a team under-performs by their standards and still manages to beat a historic playoff offense, there is nothing to define them as the worse team. Instead, it is the signal of a dynasty, built on a foundation of winning dynamically — because ugly winners are still winners.